NBA: Celtics rookies Fab Melo, Jarvis Varnado blocking phenoms

Celtics rookies Fab Melo and Jarvis Varnado sat in front of their lockers before Wednesday’s game at the TD Garden, but they didn’t speak to each other.

That’s unfortunate because it could have been a blockbuster of a conversation.

Few players block more shots than they do.

The 7-foot Melo set an NBA D-League record by blocking 14 shots for Maine against Erie on Dec. 22.

“Games like that, I feel like I can stop everything,” Melo said.

Four nights later, he blocked nine more shots at Idaho. Melo averaged 3.83 blocks in 12 D-League games before he was recalled Wednesday from Maine so Dr. Brian McKeon, the Celtics’ team physician, could check him out after he walked into a doorway and suffered a concussion.

Before Boston signed the 6-foot-9 Varnado on Christmas Eve, he was leading the D-League with 3.9 blocks per game for Sioux Falls. He swatted a season-high eight shots on Nov. 30 at Springfield. In his final two years at Mississippi State, Varnado led NCAA Division 1 in blocks, averaging 4.62 as a junior and 4.72 as a senior. He also set the NCAA record for most blocks in a career with 564.

Melo averaged 2.9 blocks last year for Syracuse, including a collegiate-high 10 against Seton Hall.

“I know he’s a good shot blocker. I know he studies it,” Varnado said of Melo. “He’s got good timing. There ain’t no need for me to talk to him. I mean, he blocked 14 shots in the D-League. That’s hard to do. So I applaud him for that.”

Varnado, who has a wingspan of 7 feet, 4 inches, believes his career high for blocked shots is 15.

“It was in high school, though,” he said.

Varnado attended high school in Brownsville, Tenn.

In separate interviews, Melo, 22, and Varnado, 24, each attributed his shot-blocking ability to timing and positioning. They said no one taught them how to block shots, that it was instinctive.

“It just came natural,” Varnado said. “My coach in high school wanted me to find a niche of what I could do well and I just started blocking shots and it got me a scholarship to college.”

Varnado was voted SEC Defensive Player of the Year three years in a row, but he wasn’t drafted until Miami took him with the 41st pick in 2010. He played in Italy and Israel before Miami invited him back to training camp last fall. A hamstring injury kept him out of camp, so he signed with Sioux Falls. The Celtics signed him on Dec. 24 after Chris Wilcox sprained his right thumb.

“You’re always going to have doubters,” Varnado said, “but you just can’t play into that. You’ve got to block that out.”

Varnado blocked it out by blocking shots. Entering Saturday, he was still looking for his first block in the NBA, but he had played only 18 minutes in five games with the Celtics.

Varnado’s biggest fan is his 5-year-old son Caden, who lives with his mother in Tennessee.

“Every time I see him, he always keeps me going,” Varnado said.

Varnado may not be a Celtic much longer. He may be cut before all contracts become guaranteed on Thursday for the rest of the season.

“He’s been good,” Celts coach Doc Rivers said. “He hasn’t played much but he’s springy. I like him a lot, actually. He’s a guy who I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep or not, but he’s a guy you wish you could because there are very few guys who have that (Dennis) Rodman twitch and he has that even the way he runs. (But) he’s raw.”

Despite their ability to swat shots, neither Melo nor Varnado are a lock to succeed in the NBA. Quite often, shot blockers aren’t well-rounded players. Greg Stiemsma blocked six shots in his NBA debut for Boston on Dec. 28, 2011, at New Orleans, but the rest of his game still needs work.

Of the eight players who have blocked 13 or more shots in a game since the NBA began keeping track of blocks in the 1973-74 season, only Shaquille O’Neal, who swatted 15, will end up in the Hall of Fame. Elmore Smith, who blocked an NBA-record 17 shots for the Lakers against Portland on Oct. 28, 1973, was never selected to play in an All-Star game in his eight NBA seasons.

Manute Bol, who blocked 13 or more shots three times and blocked eight shots in a quarter to set an NBA record, relied on his 7-foot-7 height and ended his career with more blocks than points.

Mark Eaton, the former 7-foot-4 Utah center, led the NBA in blocks four times and averaged a league-record 5.56 blocks in 1984-85, but never averaged double digits in scoring.

The most memorable shot blocker could be Dikembe Mutombo, who waved his index finger at an opponent after blocking his shot.

Unfortunately, the NBA didn’t keep track of blocks when Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain played, but it’s believed they averaged as many as six to eight blocks a game.

Kevin McHale and Robert Parish share the Celtics record for most blocks in a game with nine. It has been 30 years since either of them did that.

Milwaukee’s Larry Sanders and Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka top the NBA in blocks this season, both averaging about three a game.

What’s wrong with Celtics?

Remembering the words to each verse of the Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” poses the same degree of difficulty Rajon Rondo faces at the foul line. Is it 12 drummers drumming or 12 lords a-leaping? But listing 12 problems with the Celtics is easy. So here goes:

1. They rarely play the tough defense that made them one of the NBA’s top teams the previous five years. Last year, they allowed the second-fewest points in the league and the lowest field-goal percentage. This year, they rank 15th and 19th. They’ve already allowed 100 or more points 14 times. Last year, they allowed 100 or more only nine times in 66 games.

3. Each training camp, the Celtics claim to have improved their bench, but it never turns out that way.

4. At age 36, Kevin Garnett can no longer play extended minutes, but the team falls apart when he rests on the bench.

5. The Celtics can’t rebound well enough because they’re simply not big enough.

6. Rookie Jared Sullinger can rebound, but he lacks the height and jumping ability to score inside.

7. Jeff Green can do a lot of things, but he’s not great at anything except being inconsistent.

8. Courtney Lee has been consistently bad from 3-point land.

9. Jason Terry is no Ray Allen.

10. Acquiring Bass for Big Baby Davis looked like a steal last season, but not this year.

11. The Celtics can’t win on the road.

12. The Celtics are too old.

In the past, Rivers always has been able to figure out a way to bring out the best in his players. So far this year, he has been at a loss as to how to do so, but it’s too early to panic. There’s plenty of time left this season, but Danny Ainge needs to acquire a bruising rebounder to play in the pivot.

Garnett gets too beat up going against centers, Collins can’t rebound, and Bass hasn’t hit his jumper as consistently as last season. Entering the season with Collins and Darko Milicic as the backups at center was a mistake. There must be a big man sitting on an NBA bench somewhere who can contribute more than Collins.

By the way, it’s 12 drummers drumming.

Tony Allen and Ray Allen are not related, but share a common bond. Both left the Celtics to sign with other teams after they felt disrespected. The Celtics tried to keep both, but the Allens felt they waited too long to express their interest.

“I don’t want to get into none of that,” Tony Allen said Wednesday before his Memphis Grizzlies beat the Celtics. “I’m coming back old Tony Allen, the Grindfather. I’m still grinding, I ain’t thought twice about what happened in the past. All I did was push forward and grind forward. I ain’t thought about nothing else.”

Nevertheless, Allen did bring up the fact that the Celtics signed Michael Finley in an attempt to add some offense three years ago, but they didn’t turn their season around until they reinserted him into the rotation, and then they went on to reach Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Tony said he had no idea why Ray Allen left the Celtics last summer to sign with Miami.

“I ain’t even worried about why he left,” Tony said, “but I know he’s a Hall of Fame cat so my hat goes off to him and everything he did. He was a great teammate to me. I learned a lot from him. So salute to him. I love him like a brother.”

Allen insisted it was too early to give up on the Celtics.

“I’ve never known those guys to be worried about the early part of the season,” he said. “I think they try to iron it all out for when it’s time to make the playoffs and that’s when they make their run. That’s how it was when I was here.

“Like they always say, they’re a work in progress. They’re going to get back to it.”

The Grizzlies, on the other hand, own one of the better records in the NBA.

“The rabbit is out of the hat about the Memphis Grizzlies now,” Allen said. “We’re starting to get everybody’s A game. That’s what we need. In order for us to continue to be talked about as one of the contenders, we have to compete and get these wins.”

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.

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